Poetry Broadsides from the Beat Movement

The Beat Movement in literature was roughly from the 1950s through the mid 1970s. It wasn't exclusively an American phenomenon, but most of its artists & writers were based in either San Francisco or New York.

Utah State University has an amazing archive of Beat broadsides, and currently there's an exhibition down in Newark at UD titled Beat Visions and the Counter Culture. Anybody up for a roadtrip? I can drive the Mystery Machine (a/k/a the DCAD van).

Art & Politics Broadsides: Critique Day

Please pay close attention to these details.

1. Print your broadside draft on 8.5" x 11" paper and tape it on the wall (eye-level please). Try to space them out evenly to avoid traffic jams.

2. Tape a blank sheet of paper next to it (this is for anonymous classmate comments).

3. Spend about half an hour viewing and commenting on each of the broadsides, including yours. Talk with your classmates about the texts and how they interact with their images.

4. What could the writer/artist do to improve their broadside for Thursday's final version? 
Be specific.

After a short break, we will reconvene and each student will talk briefly about their concept and what they need to do to make their broadside better (both in terms of design and language).

Lastly, remember that you do not need to print out your broadside for Thursday's class, but you do need to upload it to Populi no later than the start of class.

Questions?   csmith@dcad.edu

Introduction to Creative Projects

Congratulations on finishing the "interview as conversation" project. I'm really excited to read them (no kidding).

Today we're introducing this semester's first creative project. The art & politics broadside is due next Thursday (draft on Tuesday). The second one: the artist zine is due March 12. 
You can think of a broadside in much the same way you think of a poster. The one crucial difference is that a broadside has a significant textual element. In other words, it combines an image (or images) with writing.

Here's your challenge: Write an original text (you might think of it as a poem, a passage of prose, a list, or anything with words), and combine it with imagery. The imagery need not be original, but you might want to use your own drawing/painting, design-work, illustration, photography, etc. You can also use appropriated images or collage or any other technique. 

The theme should have something to do with the intersection of art and politics. If you don't think that art and politics interest, make that the topic of your broadside. Here's a link to over a hundred broadsides from the al-Mutanabbi St. Project.

Changes to Schedule of Assignments

We had to change a few things around to accommodate the unforeseen opportunity to write statements and resumes for the Plant Life in the City fellowship. The changes have been made to the official syllabus on Populi, and I've also included them below.

IV. Weekly Course Calendar

Please note: This tentative thumbnail schedule is subject to change. Detailed instructions for each week’s reading and assignments will be clearly explained in handouts and on the class blog.

I        January 7, 9 (Introduction to the course)

II       January 14, 16 (Art in 2020: What & Why due)

III     January 21, 23 (in-class critique, exercises)

IV     January 28, 30 (artist statement: draft on Tue /final on Thurs)

V       February 4, 6 (resume draft on Tue /final on Thurs)

VI     February 11, 13 (interview as conversation, draft)

VII    February 18, 20 (interview as conversation, final )

VIII   February 25, 27 (creative project one: art & politics broadside)

   IX     March 3, 5 (catalogue entry: draft on Tues, final on Thurs)

X      March 10, 12 (creative project two: artist zines)

         March 17, 19 (Spring Break, No classes)

XI     March 24, 26 (exhibition review)

XII    March 31 April 2, (research essay bootcamp))

XIII   April 7, 9 (research essay draft due)

XIV   April 14, 16 (final research paper due on Tues: critique, assessment, evaluation)

XV    April 21, 23 (presentations: evaluations, class wrap-up)

Lil Buck in Paris

This amazing video has nothing directly to do with "Writing for the Arts." Enjoy Lil Buck dancing his way through a museum.

Maybe Walter Pater was wrong. He famously wrote that "all art constantly aspires to the condition of music. Maybe all art aspires to the condition of dance?

ZINE FEST

Here's a super-brief article about the history of zines and chapbooks. Start brainstorming. Your zine will be focused on some aspect of art/design married with writing.

Formatting Conventions for Interview as Conversation Project

PLEASE PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THESE FIVE POINTS

1. Each student must upload the final version of the project under his/her/their 
own name to Populi no later than the start of class on Thursday, February 20.

2. Make sure to upload your file in .docx format. That way I can edit it.

3. Format the document in landscape mode with two columns. One inch margins 
all around, single-spaced, 11 pt font.

4. Proofread carefully. Read it out loud. Your ears will hear little mistakes 
that your eyes will never see. 

5. Your photo will be taken on Thursday, fair warning.

QUESTIONS: CSMITH@DCAD.EDU

Interviews: Video and Print

Some interviews are spoken (heard live, or recorded). Other interviews exist solely in the world of writing. Each form has its advantages and disadvantages. 

Here's a videotaped interview with the American contemporary artist, Mark Bradford. 

And here's a link to a printed interview with him. Pay close attention to the "give and take" between the interviewer and Mark Bradford. It's this sense of conversation that you're after in your co-written dialogue.

Interview as Conversation: Pairs

2:00-3:15
Camille/Michelle
Cam H/ John
Adrian/Vincent
Luis/Nicole
Jessica/Trinity
Jamie/Liz
Alexis/Dan/Ashley
Reese/Cam D

3:30-4:45
Isaiah/Adriana
Abby/Meadow 
Ken/Caroline
Kylie/Shanna
Kelly/Roman
Kristen/Danielle
Adrian/Mea
Tatyana/Paritosh

New Assignment: Interview as Conversation

This new assignment is a little bit complicated. Please pay attention to the following details, and don't be afraid to ask for clarification.

1) You will work with one other classmate (randomly chosen). In the case of an odd number of students, one of the groups will have three instead of two members.

2) Compile a list of exactly 13 questions that have to do with being a young artist/designer in the year 2020. Formulate your questions to generate developed and nuanced responses, not questions that can be answered yes/no. This generally means you'll be getting into what I call "why territory". 

3) After revising your list of 13 questions, type them into a GoogleDoc shared with your partner. This should be completed by the end of today's class (Tuesday, February 11).

4) Now comes the fun part. Each group member will write detailed and specific responses to their own 13 questions. The length of each response is variable, of course. Shoot for between 5-10 sentences, but don't feel constrained if some of your responses are much longer. For instance, telling a story takes more ink than a typical non-narrative response. Each partner should choose a different font or font color to help differentiate the different voices of the different people responding. This is due at the start of class on Thursday, February 13.

5) Remove the initial questions from your GoogleDoc and start to "blend" your voices together. For instance: "I totally understand where you're coming from, Bernadette. My parents, like yours, never really understood why I needed to study art. At least you had the cool summer arts camp experiences. I really had nothing like that." Work together with your partner on the revising and editing. If you're doing it the correct way, you'll have things that you want to delete and things that you'll want to add. 

6) Write a brief bio for each respondent and include a photo of the two of you in dialogue.

Here's a list of potential interview questions, or rather, areas for questions from Artrepreneur. Some of them don't make much sense to an emerging artist like you (one without a collector base, for example).

We'll talk about formatting (two-column) on Thursday. 
The final written conversation is due Tuesday, February 18. Thursday, February 20.

Get to work. Have fun.

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

The Artist Interview as Conversation

Sometimes an interview can feel like an interrogation. For instance, if you have a run-in with the police, they are generally not interested in starting a conversation with you. They have questions, and they expect answers. The roles of interviewer and interviewee are stable.

However, sometimes an interview can feel more like a conversation, with both participants asking and answering questions based on each others responses. In essence, it turns into a dialogue with genuine give and take. Here's an example of such an interview:

Osman Can Yerebakan with Lorna Simpson in the Brooklyn Rail.

Plant Life in the City: Deadline TOMORROW, February 7

Students planning to submit an application for the Plant Life in the City Fellowship have until tomorrow to complete all the steps. This is not a class requirement, but...

You can't win if you don't play...
You can't score if you don't shoot...
Please give it a try. 
You literally have nothing to lose.

Make sure you proofread (yet again) all of your documents before submitting them. We completed both elements of Section 3 in class (statement & resume). Sections 1 and 4 are very straightforward and don't require outside work. Section 2, the images and descriptions, will take a little bit of time. Forward your questions to JaQuanne at jleroy@dcad.edu


Outline of Sections
Section 1: Artist Information (Email, Name, and Phone Number)

Section 2: Art Images and Descriptions
- Upload 5 images
- Description for each piece should include image file name, title of artwork, medium, dimensions, and brief statement

Section 3: Artist CV/Resume and Statement
- Artist CV/Resume - Submit an outline of your education, exhibitions, and experience in the art field.
- Artist Statement - In 300 words or less, describe your work as an artist and philosophy. Describe your interest in the environment and/or environmental justice, and why you would like to participate in this fellowship.


Section 4: Participation Agreement
- Acknowledgment for field trips on February 22, 2020
- Acknowledgment for artist check-in on March 21, 2020

artbusiness.com: Use with Caution

This is a business-oriented website, not an academic or scholarly resource. 
However, just because it's a commercial enterprise doesn't mean that it lacks value. It does, however, mean that a reader needs to remember that the site is trying to generate revenue for the art consultant behind it, Alan Bamberger. Toward the end of each of his articles about the business of art, he includes three asterisks (***) after which he makes an explicit pitch for his services. Once you get to the asterisks, you can stop reading. 

Thomas Kinkade: Painter of Light

One of the most ridiculed, and commercially successful, American artists of the recent past was Thomas Kinkade. You've probably seen reproductions of his paintings without ever knowing that the artist trademarked the name "Painter of Light". Kinkade's empire eventually fell due to over-expansion and the realization that while there was a big market for his kind of art, it was already fairly saturated. Only so many people wanted Kinkade reproductions. He died at the age of 54 in 2012.

People in the so-called "art world" despised Kinkade's art for a number of completely understandable reasons. But some people thought that the critique was unfair. Here's one fairly outrageous and angry defense of his art, from the art-consulting blog "artbusiness.com."

Because this class, Writing for the Arts, is focused on the intersection of writing and art, let's take a close analytical look at the arguments and styles of these two pieces of writing. How do these essays work? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are their blind-spots. What else might the authors, Alan Bamberger and Tessa Decarlo, have done to improve their arguments? 

Break into pairs and complete the handout. One person in the group will focus on the Pro-Kinkade position and the other on the Anti-Kinkade position. We'll bring the class back together and have a formal debate for today's final half hour.

Resume Workshop Today

You can find an endless supply of free resume templates online. Some are good, some are really bad. Here's one  from Behance that I think is effective. And here is a link to "23 Creative Resumes."

Today in class we're going to help each other in improving the look, the content, and the writing style of our resumes. We'll borrow great ideas from our classmates, and we'll steer clear of  their mistakes and missteps. 

See if you can identify at least one "element" of your classmates' resumes that is particularly tuned for the "Plant Life in the City" fellowship. Is it a generic resume that would just as easily be used for a job at Chik-fil-a? If the answer to this question is yes, there's time between now and Thursday, February 6, when it's due.

Upload your revised resume to Populi; no need to print it out.

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

PS: I'll be the Writing Studio tutor tomorrow (Wed) from 9-4, and also on Thursday morning from 9-1. Come see me. It's actually fun... no kidding.